[carstenw]

I cannot imagine that Leica will go for serious competition with Nikon's and Canon's top models with the R10. There is too much to catch up with, too much to be learned. I don't think it is realistic for Leica to add the knowledge that is required to build a Nikon D3 or Canon 1D3 or 1Ds3 in just a couple of years, when it took Nikon and Canon many, many years.

What is realistic is to take the best sensor they can find, probably Kodak (who have their own axe to grind, to redeem themselves after their own disastrous digital SLR debut) and build a solid, relatively simple and mostly manual SLR around it, with a superior viewfinder, great image quality, solid backward compatibility, a great manual focusing experience, and at the same time, make some modest, but well-considered steps forward. I imagine that there will be a more affordable line of lenses with typical Leica quality, to accompany the R10, perhaps a line of Summarits, as well as at least one new exciting top-end lens.

The interesting question is what will the advancements be? I presume, personally, that they will add autofocus, and a couple of AF zooms to go with the system. Given their experience with OIS from the Digilux 3 system, it is possible that they will add that too. I think (and somehow hope) that it will stop there. Given their "full-frame or larger" comment, they may add a slightly larger sensor which can be set up for 3:2 or 4:3 in firmware. I would love to have a dust-removal system, and a few other features, but I would much rather that Leica makes slow, solid steps forward, while not making mistakes, than that they try to bite off too much at once.